As we head into winter across Manchester, the issue of homelessness and rough sleeping is again coming to the fore and About Manchester listened to some of the region’s leaders giving their solutions
Rough sleeping figures fell during the pandemic and until the last few months have stayed at low levels but as cost of living pressures rise, so are rough sleeping figures
Early in his first Mayoral term Andy Burnham’s Bed for a Night scheme aimed to take people off the streets,currently it is helping 732 people,520 of those funded through the Mayor’s charity
With figures now rising Mayor Burnham is increasing funding to the scheme with £460,000 pledged to a scheme that already costs £6m.It will create an extra 86 places which more or less equates to the rise in rough sleeping in recent weeks
Contrary to some reports, the scheme is free for those who make use of it and people can stay at the same location
Leader of Manchester City Council Bev Craig said that the City Centre is being particularly effected
A recent survey by the council found that 21 per cent of households across Manchester has thirty pounds a month or less to spend after paying for accommodation,energy bills and food while 3000 homeless presentations per quarter are turning up at the Town Hall, a consequence she says of rents rising
Manchester Council she adds are making sure they can concentrate on prevention-three new hubs across the City are handing out advice
“Action on local housing allowance cannot wait,she adds with a requirement for more sustainable funding and move away for bidding bed for bed and action to be brought forward on the cost of living crisis
“For the public coming into the City Centre, it is hard dealing with the reality of seeing people on the streets”
Paul Dennett,Salford Mayor and Greater Manchester’s lead on housing echoes Craig’s sentiments on political issues-He is calling for a rent freeze in the private sector and believes that cost of living measures such as the triple lock need to be brought in now rather than waiting until April of next year
There are he told us big issues around housing stock-Sales of council houses which began in the 1989’s has seen social stock depleted and never replaced
Instead private housing stock has taken its place, an issue adds Andy Burnham in a city where forty per cent of private housing stock is regarded as sub standard
There is an ambition to build 50,000 affordable houses across the region between now and 2037,the majority to be net zero
Burnham would go further,the right to decent accommodation should be made a human right he feels,triggered a better national approach to the issue which is lacking
He was heartened by some of what he heard in last week’s Autumn statement that suggested that the region could be given more autonomy over housing policy
The eyes of the country were on the region’s housing last week when the Rochdale coroner said that the death of two year old Awaab Ishak should be a ‘defining moment’ for the housing sector and how it deals with an issue affecting homes across the UK.
Superintendant Ian Jones is at the coal face when it comes to dealing with homelessness and begging in the City Centre heading the street engagement team based in the Town Hall extension
His plainclothes officers go out every day to engage and signpost them to services
Begging is a big issue,again they engage, some of course don’t want help, they will be arrested but they will never see a cell only the custody suite and if charged their bail conditions will include that they get help
He accepts that there are beggars who are not homeless and they will be dealt with by enforcement laws which will include bail conditions that prohibits them from entering certain areas of the city centre
His advice to the public? “Don’t give money to the people on the street this just makes our job worse….If you want to give money give it to organisations that can help”
